The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard - Elmore Leonard [195]
“According to your rules.”
“With God’s help!”
“Mr. Kergosen,” Treat said, “I don’t mean disrespect, but I think you’ve rigged it so God has to take the blame for your mistakes. Ellis and I made a mistake. We admit it. We should’ve come to you first. We would’ve got married whether you said yes or no, but we still should’ve come to you first. The way it is now, it’s still up to you, but now you’re in an embarrassing position with the Almighty. Ellis and I are married in the eyes of the same God that you say’s been guiding you all this time, thirty years or more. All right, you and Him have been getting along fine up to now. But now what?”
Kergosen said nothing.
“We could probably argue all day,” Treat said, “but it comes down to this: You either go home and send out some more men, or you use that scattergun, or you come inside and have some coffee, and we’ll talk it over like two grown-up men.”
Kergosen stared at him. “I admire your control, Mr. Treat.”
“I’ve learned how to wait, Mr. Kergosen. If it comes down to that, I’ll outwait you. I think you know that.”
Kergosen was silent for a long moment. He looked down at his hands on the shotgun and exhaled, letting his breath out slowly, wearily, and he seemed to sit lower on the saddle.
“I think I’m getting old,” he said quietly. “I’m tired of arguing and tired of fighting.”
“Maybe tired of fighting yourself,” Treat said.
Kergosen nodded faintly. “Maybe so.”
Treat waited, then said, “Mr. Kergosen, I’m anxious to see my wife.”
Kergosen’s face came up, out of shadow, deep-lined and solemn, but the hard tightness was gone from his jaw. He shifted his weight and came down off the saddle, and on the ground he handed the shotgun to Treat.
“Phil,” he said, “this damn thing’s getting too heavy to hold.”
From his pocket Treat brought out the bank draft Kergosen had given him. He handed it over, saying, “So is this, Mr. Kergosen.”
They stood for a moment. Kergosen’s hand went into his pocket with the bank draft and when they moved toward the adobe, the bitterness between them was past. It had worn itself to nothing.
24
Man with the Iron Arm
Original Title: The One Arm Man
Complete Western Book, September 1956
Chapter One
CHRIS AND KITE and Vicente were already half down the slope when we came out of the trees—three riders spread out and running hard, waving their sombreros like they could smell the mescal we’d been talking about all morning. This new man, Tobin Royal, was next to me holding in his big sorrel I think just to show he could hold himself, too, if he wanted. He was smoking a cigarette and squinting through the smoke curling up from it.
At the bottom of the grade, looking bleached white in the big open sunlight, were the adobes of Brady’s Store: one main structure and a few scattered out-buildings and a corral. Brady’s served as a Hatch & Hodges stage-line stop, besides being a combination store and saloon for the half dozen one-loop ranchers in the vicinity. The one we worked for—the El Centro Cattle Company—was bigger than all of them put together twice and just the eastern tip of it came close to touching Brady’s Store. Chris and Kite and Vicente and this Tobin Royal and I were gathering stock from the east range, readying for a trail drive and we felt we deserved some of Brady’s mescal long as it was handy.
By the time Tobin and I rode into the yard, the others had gone into the saloon side of the adobe and I saw a bare-headed, dark-haired man leading their three horses over to the open stable shed that attached to the adobe. He looked around, hearing us ride in, and I saw then that he had only one arm. For a moment he stood looking at us; then he turned, leading the horses away, moving slow like he either had all the time in the world or else his mind was on something else.
As we swung off, this Tobin Royal called over to him, “Hey, boy, two more here!” But the one-armed man kept going like he hadn’t heard. Tobin stood looking at the rumps of the three horses moving into the stable. He let his reins drop and he moved a half dozen